Provinces of Spain

Second-level administrative divisions of Spain

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Provinces of Spain

Category| Province
Location| Kingdom of Spain
Found in| Autonomous communities
Created by| Royal Decree (30/11/1833)
Created|

* 1833

Number| 50
Populations| 95,258–6,458,684
Areas| 1,980–21,766 km2
Government|

* Provincial council

Subdivisions|

* Municipalities

A province in Spain[note 1] is a territorial division defined as a collection of municipalities.[1][2][3] The current provinces of Spain correspond by and large to the provinces created under the purview of the 1833 territorial re-organization of Spain, with a similar predecessor from 1822 (during the Trienio Liberal) and an earlier precedent in the 1810 Napoleonic division of Spain into 84 prefectures.[4] There are many other groupings of municipalities that comprise the local government of Spain.[5]

The boundaries of provinces can only be altered by the Spanish Parliament,[1] giving rise to the common view that the 17 autonomous communities are subdivided into 50 provinces. In reality, the system is not hierarchical but defined according to jurisdiction (Spanish: competencias).[6]

The body charged with government and administration of a province is the provincial council, but their existence is controversial. As the province is defined as a "local entity" in the Constitution, the Provincial council belongs to the sphere of local government.

## Provincial organization

[edit]

Main article: History of the territorial organization of Spain

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The layout of Spain's provinces closely follows the pattern of the territorial division of the country carried out in 1833. The only major change of provincial borders since that time has been the division of the Province of Canary Islands into the provinces of Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Historically, the provinces served mainly as transmission belts for policies enacted in Madrid, as Spain was a highly centralised state for most of its modern history. The provinces were the "building-blocks" from which the autonomous communities were created following processes defined in the 1978 Constitution. Consequently, no province is divided between these communities.

The importance of the provinces has declined since the adoption of the system of autonomous communities in the period of the Spanish transition to democracy. They nevertheless remain electoral districts for national elections.

Provinces are also used as geographical references: for instance in postal addresses and telephone codes. National media will also frequently use the province to disambiguate small towns or communities whose names occur frequently throughout Spain. A small town would normally be identified as being in, say, Valladolid province rather than the autonomous community of Castile and León. In addition, organisations outside Spain use provinces for statistical analysis and policy making and in comparison with other countries including NUTS, OECD,  FIPS, CIA World Factbook, ISO 3166-2 and the UN's Second Administrative Level Boundaries data set project (SALB).

Most of the provinces are named after their capital town, with the exceptions of Asturias, Cantabria, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja, and Navarre — which are autonomous communities consisting of a single province — as well as the historically autonomous Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. The names of the provinces of Las Palmas and Castellón are taken from their respective capital cities, but shortened. In almost all cases, the capital of the province is also its biggest settlement, with the exception of the provinces of Pontevedra (Vigo), Cádiz (Jerez), and Asturias (capital is Oviedo, but largest city is Gijón). Only two capitals of autonomous communities —Mérida in Extremadura and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia — are not also the capitals of provinces.

Seven of the autonomous communities comprise no more than one province each: Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, and Navarre. These are sometimes referred to as "uniprovincial" communities. Ceuta, Melilla, and the plazas de soberanía are not part of any province.

A map of Spain's provinces (names are shown in Spanish). Ceuta and Melilla were formerly part of Cádiz and Málaga provinces respectively, but are currently not part of any province.

## List of provinces

[edit]

The table below lists the provinces of Spain. For each, the capital city is given, together with an indication of the autonomous community to which it belongs and a link to a list of municipalities in the province. The names of the provinces and their capitals are ordered alphabetically according to the form in which they appear in the main Wikipedia articles describing them. Unless otherwise indicated, their Spanish-language names are the same; locally valid names in Spain's other co-official languages (Basque, Catalan, which is officially called Valencian in the Valencian Community, Galician) are also indicated where they differ.

Autonomous community  | Province name  | Capital  | Lists of municipalities

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|
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Andalusia (8 provinces)  |  Almería | Almería | Municipalities
Cádiz | Cádiz | Municipalities
Córdoba | Córdoba | Municipalities
Granada | Granada | Municipalities
Huelva | Huelva | Municipalities
Jaén | Jaén | Municipalities
Málaga | Málaga | Municipalities
Seville[a] | Seville[a] | Municipalities
Aragon (3 provinces)  |  Huesca | Huesca | Municipalities
Teruel | Teruel | Municipalities
Zaragoza | Zaragoza | Municipalities
Asturias[b] (1 province)  | Oviedo[c] | Municipalities
Balearic Islands[d] (1 province)  | Palma | Municipalities
Basque Country[e] (3 provinces)  |  Álava[f] | Vitoria-Gasteiz[g] | Municipalities
Biscay[h] | Bilbao[i] | Municipalities
Guipúzcoa[j] | San Sebastián[k] | Municipalities
Canary Islands (2 provinces)  |  Las Palmas | Las Palmas | Municipalities
Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Municipalities
Cantabria (1 province)  | Santander | Municipalities
Castile and León (9 provinces)  |  Ávila | Ávila | Municipalities
Burgos | Burgos | Municipalities
León | León | Municipalities
Palencia | Palencia | Municipalities
Salamanca | Salamanca | Municipalities
Segovia | Segovia | Municipalities
Soria | Soria | Municipalities
Valladolid | Valladolid | Municipalities
Zamora | Zamora | Municipalities
Castilla-La Mancha (5 provinces)  |  Albacete | Albacete | Municipalities
Ciudad Real | Ciudad Real | Municipalities
Cuenca | Cuenca | Municipalities
Guadalajara | Guadalajara | Municipalities
Toledo | Toledo | Municipalities
Catalonia[l] (4 provinces)  |  Barcelona | Barcelona | Municipalities
Girona[m] | Girona[m] | Municipalities
Lérida[n] | Lleida[n] | Municipalities
Tarragona | Tarragona | Municipalities
Extremadura |  Badajoz | Badajoz | Municipalities
Cáceres | Cáceres | Municipalities
Galicia (4 provinces)  |  La Coruña[o] | La Coruña[o] | Municipalities
Lugo | Lugo | Municipalities
Orense[p] | Orense[p] | Municipalities
Pontevedra | Pontevedra | Municipalities
La Rioja (1 province)  | Logroño | Municipalities
Madrid (1 province)  | Madrid | Municipalities
Murcia (1 province)  | Murcia | Municipalities
Navarre[q] (1 province)  | Pamplona[r] | Municipalities
Valencian Community (3 provinces)  |  Alicante[s] | Alicante[s] | Municipalities
Castellón[t] | Castellón de la Plana[t] | Municipalities
Valencia[u] | Valencia[u] | Municipalities

Native names:

1. ^ a b Spanish: Sevilla
2. ^ Asturian: Asturies
Spanish: Asturias
3. ^ Asturian: Uviéu
Spanish: Oviedo
4. ^ Catalan: Illes Balears
Spanish: Islas Baleares
5. ^ Basque: Euskadi
Spanish: País Vasco
6. ^ Basque: Araba
Spanish: Álava
7. ^ Basque: Gasteiz
Spanish: Vitoria
8. ^ Basque: Bizkaia
Spanish: Vizcaya
9. ^ Basque: Bilbo
Spanish: Bilbao
10. ^ Basque: Gipuzkoa
Spanish: Guipúzcoa
11. ^ Basque: Donostia
Spanish: San Sebastián
12. ^ Catalan: Catalunya
Occitan: Catalonha
Spanish: Cataluña
13. ^ a b Catalan: Girona
Spanish: Gerona
14. ^ a b Catalan: Lleida
Occitan: Lhèida
Spanish: Lérida
15. ^ a b Galician: A Coruña
Spanish: La Coruña
16. ^ a b Galician: Ourense
Spanish: Orense
17. ^ Basque: Nafarroa
Spanish: Navarra
18. ^ Basque: Iruña
Spanish: Pamplona
19. ^ a b Valencian: Alacant
Spanish: Alicante
20. ^ a b Valencian: Castelló
Spanish: Castellón
21. ^ a b Valencian: València
Spanish: Valencia

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^
* Spanish: provincias, IPA: [pɾoˈβinθjas]; sing. provincia)
* Basque probintziak (IPA: [pɾobints̻iak], sing. probintzia.
* Catalan províncies (IPA: [pɾuˈβinsiəs]), sing. província.
* Galician provincias (IPA: [pɾoˈβinθjɐs]), sing. provincia.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Spanish Constitution 1978, Article 141(1).
2. ^ Zafra Víctor 2004, p. 102.
3. ^ Local Government Act 1985, Article 31.
4. ^ Canel 1994, pp. 51. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCanel1994 (help)
5. ^ Local Government Act 1985, Articles 40-44.
6. ^ MPA, paragraph 1.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* "The Spanish Constitution" (PDF). Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado. 1978. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
* "Local Government Act (Organic Law 7/1985)" (in Spanish). Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado. 1985. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
* Zafra Víctor, Manuel (2004). "Reflexiones sobre el gobierno local" [Reflections on local government] (PDF). Anuario del Gobierno Local (in Spanish) (1). Barcelona: Institut de Dret Públic. ISBN 84-609-5895-7. ISSN 2013-4924. Archived from the original (pdf) on 2016-08-09. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
* "Local Government in Spain" (PDF). Ministry of Public Administration. Retrieved 11 June 2022.

## See also

[edit]

* Political divisions of Spain
* Local government in Spain
* Autonomous communities of Spain
* Comarcas of Spain
* ISO 3166-2:ES
* List of provincial flags of Spain
* Ranked lists of Spanish provinces
* Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Provinces of Spain.

* Maps of the provinces of Spain
* List of municipalities of Spain listed by province from the Spanish INE (National Statistics Institute) (in Spanish)

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Provinces of Spain

* A Coruña
* Álava
* Albacete
* Alicante
* Almería
* Asturias
* Ávila
* Badajoz
* Balearic Islands
* Barcelona
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* Burgos
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* Huelva
* Huesca
* Jaén
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* León
* Lleida
* Lugo
* Madrid
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* Murcia
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* Ourense
* Palencia
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* Segovia
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